Yet Another Person Who Stayed in Mandarin Orchard Tested Positive for COVID-19

By
Shawn Ambrose
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When 13 guests serving their stay-home notice (SHN) at the Mandarin Orchard tested positive for the coronavirus, the authorities probably raised an eyebrow.

But when the infections of all 13 cases were later found to have “high genetic similarity” despite having arrived from 10 different countries, their eyebrows were simply too confused to move.

After all, the whole point of quarantine in a dedicated facility is to prevent Covid-19 from spreading further.

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But somehow, even after all the guests were moved out of the hotel, more of them are testing positive for the virus.

Yet Another Person Who Stayed in Mandarin Orchard Tested Positive for COVID-19

Sunday (27 Dec) was a good day, as only five new Covid-19 cases were reported, all of which were imported.

However, one of the infected individuals, a 23-year-old female work permit holder from Malaysia, had served a stay-home notice at Mandarin Orchard Singapore.

She had been checked out, along with all the hotel’s guests, on 20 Dec, when the Ministry of Health (MOH) began investigating the curious case of the 13 infections.

The woman was then transferred to another dedicated facility.

She initially tested negative for the virus, when swabbed on 19 Dec.

But her swab on 24 Dec at the end of her stay-home notice came back positive, and she was taken to the hospital the next day.

A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) also returned a positive result.

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Curiously, when a second sample was taken by NPHL on Saturday (26 Dec), she tested negative.

Her serological test, which tests for past infections, also came back negative.

You can find out more about the two types of COVID-19 tests here:

The authorities are carrying out investigations to determine if she’s linked to the 13 infections from the Mandarin Orchard.

Third Day in a Row With Covid-19 Case From Mandarin Orchard

What’s a little concerning is that this is the third day in a row that a new Covid-19 case has had links to the Mandarin Orchard.

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On 25 Dec 2020, MOH reported 14 new cases, all of which were from abroad.

One of the cases was a Singapore PR who arrived from the Philippines on 10 December and served his SHN at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore.

Then, on Saturday (26 Dec), 10 new Covid-19 infections were reported, one of which was a 37-year-old Lebanese man who had served his SHN at the Mandarin Orchard.

The man, who came to Singapore from Qatar, tested positive on 24 Dec, but negative for a serological test, meaning it’s likely not a past infection.

Possible Links? 

At the moment, we don’t know if these three new cases are linked to the 13 infections being investigated by MOH.

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The reason why the 13 infections sparked concern was that their infections had a high genetic similarity even though they came from 10 different countries.

This led some to speculate that if the guests did not encounter each other during their stay, hotel staff or fomites (objects likely to carry infection) may have formed the transmission chain.

And if this was indeed the case, more guests would obviously get infected.

3 staff members at the hotel also tested positive recently, supporting this theory.

However, on 22 Dec 2020, Minister Lawrence Wong announced at a press conference that no breach was discovered at Mandarin Orchard so far.

So, for now, the case of the 13 infected individuals (and possibly three more) remains a mystery.

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Investigations are still ongoing.

Featured Image: sirastock / Shutterstock.com

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]